Creative Chuch Plant

God blessed me yesterday with a huge scholarhip. As far as I know, it is the largest donor scholarship that they award at VFCC. It was enough money to cover my tuition costs for my next semester. God is good! It'll save me from getting more grey hairs from stressing about finances. Thank you to all of you that are praying for us!

Can I just take a moment and stress the importance of this time of rest every week. I am a big fan of the Sabbath. I think that God is as well. What a great time every week to rest. It's not a rest in order to work harder. It's not a recreation day. It's a day of rest. God built you for rest. Weekly rest. 6 days of work one day of rest. Take time to reflect today and find time to fulfill the Sabbath in your life. Don't compromise.

Today is our 6 year anniversary! I love my wife more today than I did yesterday! (because yesterday she really got on my nerves! jk) Marriage is a picture of Christ and the church. It was the first relationship that man shared with woman. It is love and joy and friendship. It teaches humility and forgiveness and faithfulness. It is fun and deep and timeless. Marriage is more than vows or rings or cohabitation. It is stronger than friendship or pasts or our wills. It is cold winter nights and hot chocolate and books. It is higher than the heavens and deeper than the seas and more vast than the universe. Marriage is what I get to have with Kate.
Katie- I love you more than the most for ever and ever and infinity in Illinois! Plus 1!

For a more indepth discussion on the topic please visit: http://docs.google.com/Doc?id=dw5shrc_25gvmkq2g6

I am currently reading The Golden Compass by Pullman. I have noticed recently that Christians are just now forming an opinion about this book. The Golden Compass has been printed since 1995. Twelve years and we are just now forming an opinion. This reminds me of the reaction that we had to the Harry Potter series as well. The fact that these books are written does not sadden me, I particularly love reading books that challenge my faith and cause me to defend what I believe. The fact that we haven't even commented on this story until now, twelve years later and on the brink of a motion picture, shows how uneducated we choose to be. I choose not to read Christian literature any more, because most of it is half truths and subtle attempts at poor theology. But I hear noone complaining about the bad theology in a Left Behind series, Ted Dekker book or Frank Peretti novel. Which should we be complaining about: A Christian book that teaches poor theology (and sometimes herasy) that subtly claims to be a form of truth or a Fantasy book that in no way claims to present a real picture of the world. Maybe we should complain more about Christian literature and movies. Perhaps we should leave those things alone that don't claim to represent reality. And (last rant) perhaps we could pick up books and educate ourselves early so that our complaints will have an impact rather than be relegated to white noise.

Turkey! Angie made a great turkey for thanksgiving. Katie made the best yams ever! And I made sweet potato pie.

Brett and Melissa plastering cake all over each others faces!

I thought that this as a really funny video using a church planter.

This is #5 in the series. If you'd like to see the rest to be able to understand them better, just visit Youtube.com and search "Christ Follower." That should bring up the series.
Another interesting thing to note is the comments that people leave below the video. They show some of the attitudes and views that secular culture has towards Christianity.

One of the core values for my life is "lifelong learning." Some of you are chuckleing because you know that I have been in college for a long time. This isn't what I mean! I mean that we have to constantly be reading, learning and teaching.
We are taking the next step in our education. Katie recently received an acceptance letter from Drexel University! I am so proud of her. This means that we will be in the area for at least another year. This also was the catalyst for me to finish my masters degree here at VFCC.
This means that we get to hit the pause button on the church plant for at least one year.

I ran my first 10k (6.2 miles) in a long time! What made this one different than all of the others is that I wasn't doing it for a cause, a prize or cheering crowds. I did it for me. It felt really great. I have been trying to lose weight by exercising (not dieting). I love the food that I eat, and I can't imagine starving myself to a goal weight. The answer... Kickboxing, running and lifting weights. It has taken me 3 months, but I am down from 199lbs to 187lbs. 2 pounds away from my goal weight of 185 (which may be changing to 180). Anyway, welcome to health.

I went camping with Brandon on the Appalachian Trail last weekend. It was a ton of fun. The trail was one of the rockiest that I have ever been on! We hiked a total of 26 miles in two days. The scenery was amazing, though not as amazing as Washington. We had a great time though. At one point on the trail, there was a vine (not a rope!) that was hanging from a tree. We decided to try to swing from it. It was so much fun! Sorry about the sideways video!

I just wanted to shout out a huge "THANK YOU" to our prayer team! You are the fuel in our engines.

If you are at all interested in joining our prayer team, we send out requests about every 2-3 weeks. Just email me at pastorjayrich@msn.com.

Alicia Britt Chole once said, "Every choice that we make is an investment in the future that we cannot see."
It's hard to view choices as an investment, but that is truly what they are. Sometimes we assume that the choices that we make are trivial and not impacting. The truth is that choices are long lasting "shapers" of our lives, our ministry and our marriages. Choices affect our relationships. They affect our workplace. They affect our spouse. Our choices will have a long lasting and impacting affect on our lives. Be wise in the choices that you make, your future depends on it.

I'm leaving today for a whitewater rafting trip. It's paid for by the school because I am a part of the leadership team. Have a great week, I'll see you on Wednesday!

I went to the Leadership Summit 2007 put on by Willow Creek Association this week. It was powerful. I learned from some of the greatest leaders, writers and pastors of our time. Among the list were Gen. Colin Powell, Jimmy Carter, Bill Hybels and Carly Fiorina. I have to say that the highlight of the week for me was the interview with Carly Fiorina. Well, I'm going to take some time over the next few days to "Back-post" everything that I learned from these leaders.

What I learned from Carly Fiorina...

Q: How important is it to motivate a team?

A: It's everything. Leadership takes motivation. Trying something new forces people to face their fears. You have to have a vision that is greater than their fears. Couple a vision with the hard reality of what it's going to take and don't sugar coat reality.

Q: Did you ever have a boss that really motivated you?

A: Leadership is about unlocking potential in others.

Q: Were you a proponent of leadership development in your CEO days

A: You must first develop yourself. You have to provid those LEADING_UP times for other people. Create experiences for people that put them outside of their comfort zone. It's important to communicate that everyon can lead and get better.

Q: What does leadership take?

A: Leadership requires passion and dispassion. Passion: You really have to believe and own what you are leading. Passion cand blind as well as motivate. Dispassion: A leader has to have enough objectivity to see what has to be done. You have to also be able to make the tough choices in staffing. You have to see when an employee isn't cutting it. It is the ability to see the truth.

How we can cast vision that large #'s of people will own.

You must process the vision

• Formulate the Vision
• Refine the Vision
• Declare the Vision

Once you have launched the Vision realize that...

• Vision Leaks
• You must celebrate small steps made towards that Vision

You must personally own the Vision

Three myths you need to blow up

• As you grow your personality changes.
  Truth: As you grow, you become more and more of who you already are.
• You grow the most in the areas that you are the weakest.
  Truth: You grow the most in your areas of greatest strength.
• A great team member puts his strengths aside and does whatever it takes to help the team
  Truth: A great team member brings his best to the table.

Three skills you need to learn

• Identify what your strengths are.
• Change something; Each week put together a "Strong Week" plan.
• Be able to talk about your strengths without bragging and your weaknesses without whining.